Saint Sabbat
Saint Sabbat, also known as the Beati, or simply the Saint, is the martyr incarnate of Sabbat, the girl from the hills of Hagia. She was born circa 500.M35, and rose from a teenage farmer's daughter to lead the Imperial forces to victory on dozens of worlds during a startlingly successful crusade that stretched from Hagia to Harkalon. She died at the end of here 101 year crusade after suffering the 9 holy wounds at Harkalon. She was returned to the pastures of Hagia by an honour guard of White Scars Space Marines, and her remains laid to a rest at what became known as the Shrinehold. In 773.M41, after extraordinary events at Herodor, one of the world's she had conquered, Sabbat re-incarnate appeared before the Imperial armies once more. First Incarnation From the Hills to the Battles In 500.M35, a young girl named Sabbat from the pastures of Hagia came forward claiming to have been visited in visions by the God-Emperor himself, and that He had told her to lead the Imperium to victory against the ruinous powers. By means unknown, she rallied the scattered and limited Imperial forces together and began a crusade to free the segmentum of the arch-enemy. It is stated that she bore a startling and unexplainable charisma and drive that men and women were unable to resist or understand. The Crusade For 101 years, the Saint waged war against the forces of Chaos, with her army growing in size from simple colonial regiments to include pilgrim armies, the White Scars and Brazen Skulls Chapters of the Astartes, and her own Sisters Militant. She fought side by side with a number of legendary warriors, including the great and beatified Warmaster Militant Kiodrus, one of the most genius tacticians in Imperial history. Her crusade stretched to Harkalon where, during an epic battle with the Ruinous hordes, she fell to nine wounds, and suffered her martyrdom. Angered and distraught by her loss, her army continued the fight and quenched the arch enemy completely. Return to Hagia, and Martyrdom Following the battle, Saint Sabbat was recovered by her warriors the White Scars, and taken back to Hagia. An honour guard of the Space Marines, who brought her to the top of the now holy mountains where she was laid to rest. The Marines each raised their chainswords in one last, great, mournful triumph. The sector of the Segmentum Pacificus was renamed the Sabbat Worlds, and Sabbat herself was beatified as a saint and a prophet from Him. The Sabbat Worlds would become one of the most pius and inscrutible regions in the known galaxy. Since her fall, the planet of Hagia has become a holy world, where the Esholi population devote their life to study and following the examples set by the Saint. Second Coming In 773.M41, rumours were abound that the Saint had returned on the Sabbat World of Herodor, a previously diagnosed insignificant agri-world. Flocks of pilgrims made their way to the planet, and an Imperial taskforce was also sent. However the rumours also attracted the attention of the arch-enemy, who sent a far larger force with the intent of striking down the Saint to destroy the spirit of the Imperium. False Prophet Originally passed as the real saint, but in fact a now insane Sanian, the false saint was exposed by Ibram Gaunt at the Balneary pools of the Civitas Beati. In reality, the real saint incarnate was among the pilgrim camps, but was cut down during an arch enemy assault on the outskirts of the city, causing a massive universal depression among the defenders. True Incarnation With the Civitas Beati on the brink, the Saint returned and, in a strange quirk of fate, chose Sanian as her vessel. Overnight, Sabbat rallied the demoralised defenders and butchered the arch-enemy in their tracks. The events at the Civitas, which included the miraculous healing of Tanith soldiers Mkvenner and Gol Kolea, sparked off a desperate attempt by the forces of Enok Ennokenti to assault the city in massive force and cut down the Saint. In the siege that followed, the Saint, with her beloved Tanith 1st as an honour guard, led the line and eventually brought back the city's defenders to the city's old hive. Using Herodor, previously seen as a backwater, as the place of return, the Saint was able to divert a great proportion of Gaur's chaos forces away from the frontline at Morlond, where Macaroth inevitably won. Having failed to kill the Saint with his 9 assassins, Ennokenti personally took the field and was at the front of the charge that stormed old hive in one final endgame. The Saint slayed Ennokenti, destroying the spirit of his Chaotic followers, and forcing them into retreat. Following their victory, the Saint left her army and, with Brin Milo at her side, took flight to join Macaroth at Morlond. Connection to the Tanith Hagia At Hagia, the place of the Beati's birth, the Tanith are sent to the Shrinehold to retrieve her mortal remains in the advance of a massive arch enemy assault triggered by the fall of the Doctrinopolis. The Saint, using dreamstate as a method of communcication, calls upon Corbec, Daur and Dorden to make after their regiment with the expression "''Sabbat Martyr". ''It is later shown that this was her way of bringing the true martyr, Vamberfeld, to the Shrinehold. On route Vamberfeld sees a young Sabbat at a farmyard in the Hagia heartlands, finding a crook in one of the livestock sheds. He takes it accidentaly. At the Shrinehold, a previously dormant psychic defense mechanism is activated by the first Infardi assault, causing a brief respite. Realising that the site posesses a defensive network system to ward off the enemy in the event of defeat, Gaunt sets off to the Pillar of Eternal flame, which they believe will activate the grid when triggered by a silver statue procured by Daur in the holy city. After Gaunt, Daur, Milo and Sanian all fail to reach the Pillar, a badly wounded Vamberfeld appears, takes the trinket, and places it in the recess, and is killed in the same instant by gunfire, giving him nine wounds. The psychic shock drives back the stunned Infardi. Herodor